Alfred and John Donovan, a father and son in Colchester, England, several years ago established the
world's most effective adversarial Web site. Feeling aggrieved by treatment from the oil giant Shell,
they created their site under the company's name, www.royaldutchshellplc.com. It strives, on a daily
basis, to expose Shell's underside through research, investigation and leaks from inside Shell, which
earned $35 billion in 2008.

"It is a way of taking on Goliath," John Donovan told The Investigator. "The Internet provides a low
cost public platform for anyone to reach a global audience, giving ordinary individuals the
opportunity to take on the powerful. Our David has already given Goliath -- with its 100,000
employees and business in 140 countries -- the PR equivalent of two black eyes."

Continued Mr. Donovan: "Our anti-Shell Web site receives several million hits every month and has
become an interactive hub of dissent attracting whistleblowers who, through our Web site, have
leaked many Shell secrets to the news media, resulting in huge embarrassment to Shell senior
management -- and also to the resignation of a Shell senior executive."

The Donovans do not earn money from their Web site (they do not sell advertising or solicit
donations), but strive purely to sway public opinion against Shell and damage its business
prospects.

Reference to website: "Shell-watching blog royaldutchplc.com says it has assembled from ‘multiple sources inside Shell’ that not only will E&P and G&P merge, but that 30 per cent of senior managers/executives will also go. The company is apparently meeting in Berlin over the next two days and this will all be delivered by Peter Voser, the incoming chief executive, on Thursday."

LONDON (AFP) - Shell announced Tuesday that Linda Cook, patroness of the division gas and energy giant Anglo-Dutch oil and candidate in the general direction, leave office on 1 June, a start could be the prelude a major reorganization.

This will precede the start of the new CEO of Shell, the current finance director Peter Voser, scheduled for July 1st. The latter was preferred to Linda Cook and other candidates, including Malcolm Brindred, leader of the division “exploration and production”, to succeed Jeroen van der Veer.

According to analysts, the announced departure of Linda Cook reflects Mr. Voser to make its mark without delay and to renew the framework of the group, even for a reorganization of its activities.

Peter Hutton, the firm NCB, said that the resignation was “not unusual” on the part of a candidate aligned, adding that Linda Cook was deemed not to get along with Mr. Voser.

However, he said the other main internal candidate for the post of general manager, Malcolm Brindred far to experience a similar fate, could not see its position strengthened by the departure of Ms. Cook, and recover all or part of its functions.

“Peter Voser might seek to merge the gas and energy division in the upstream division + + (the industry” exploration and production “, ie), as is the case with the rival groups BP and Total, in order to generate economies of operation, “he anticipated.

Meanwhile, the website royaldutchshellplc.com, led by Alfred and John Donovan, former employees opposed to the direction of the oil group, has confirmed these speculations, saying that Mr Voser would announce an overhaul of the organizational group Thursday, after a two-day meeting of the principals of the company to be held in Berlin.

According to the site, said that based on internal sources of Shell, Mr Voser actually announce that day the integration of gas and energy division in the upstream division, and the disappearance of certain centers and regional decision removing a third of the senior group.

Voser is expected to use the summit to announce the culling of almost a third of Shell's senior managers, according to a report on company gossip site Royaldutchshellplc.com yesterday.

The unauthorised site, which has regularly obtained leaks from Shell insiders, said Voser will also announce the merger of Shell's Gas & Power and Exploration & Production divisions at the meeting, which may help explain Cook's departure.

Voser is expected to use the summit to announce the culling of almost a third of Shell's senior managers, according to a report on company gossip site Royaldutchshellplc.com yesterday.

The unauthorised site, which has regularly obtained leaks from Shell insiders, said Voser will also announce the merger of Shell's Gas & Power and Exploration & Production divisions at the meeting, which may help explain Cook's departure.

LONDON -- Royal Dutch Shell PLC (RDSB.LN) said Wednesday it will
launch a major company restructuring, merging its exploration and
production, gas and power and oil sands units into two new divisions as
new Chief Executive Peter Voser puts his stamp on the company.

Shell's current global head of exploration and production, Malcolm
Brinded, will head up the larger of the new divisions, called Upstream
International. Marvin Odum, currently Shell's Executive Vice President
for Exploration and Production Americas, will become director of
Upstream Americas.

The reorganization will affect around 24,000 Shell staff. A Shell
spokesman declined to comment on how many jobs may be cut.Shell
critic John Donovan reported on his blog Tuesday that more than 30%
of senior executives at the two divisions could be culled.

At 0820 GMT Shell B shares were down 0.5%, or 8 pence, at 1655p in a
fairly flat London market.

Senior managers at Shell today started a two-day conference where they will be told
of large potential staff cuts.

The summit in Berlin comes a day after the oil giant's head of gas, Linda Cook, left Shell after
being passed over for the chief executive's role.

That job is being taken up by Peter Voser, the company's finance director, on 1 July. Shell
insiders' website Royaldutchshellplc.com reported that Voser will tell his top 100 managers that
Cook's old division will be merged with exploration and production in a move aimed at dramatic
staff cuts. It is believed this was Voser's platform on which he made his pitch to the board for
the chief executive's job.

Although oil prices have increased hugely in the past few months, at $61.59 a barrel today, it is
still way down on the $147 at which it peaked last year, meaning Shell has to cut costs in order
to retain its profitability.

Meanwhile, staff flocked to Royaldutchshell.com to attack the group's management.

One entry read: "Amongst those to be culled are (I suspect) many who are not only competent
but who also realised that Shell historically was a bit different from the rest of the American oil
major groups. No more. Sadly Shell is now the worst of the oil majors by far in almost every
respect. And for those of us who in our small ways helped build a company that we were proud
of its not just regrettable but a scandal."

Senior managers at Shell today started a two-day conference where they will be told
of large potential staff cuts.

The summit in Berlin comes a day after the oil giant's head of gas, Linda Cook, left Shell after
being passed over for the chief executive's role.

That job is being taken up by Peter Voser, the company's finance director, on 1 July. Shell
insiders' website Royaldutchshellplc.com reported that Voser will tell his top 100 managers that
Cook's old division will be merged with exploration and production in a move aimed at dramatic
staff cuts. It is believed this was Voser's platform on which he made his pitch to the board for
the chief executive's job.

Although oil prices have increased hugely in the past few months, at $61.59 a barrel today, it is
still way down on the $147 at which it peaked last year, meaning Shell has to cut costs in order
to retain its profitability.

Meanwhile, staff flocked to Royaldutchshell.com to attack the group's management.

One entry read: "Amongst those to be culled are (I suspect) many who are not only competent
but who also realised that Shell historically was a bit different from the rest of the American oil
major groups. No more. Sadly Shell is now the worst of the oil majors by far in almost every
respect. And for those of us who in our small ways helped build a company that we were proud
of its not just regrettable but a scandal."

The Herald (Scotland): New Shell chief ready to slash and burn: 29 May 2009

EXTRACT

Shell will also set up a new division to handle project delivery and technology. It will be led
by Matthias Bichsel, who is also Swiss. Some Shell employees complained on their
website Royaldutchshellplc.com that a "Swiss Mafia" is running the group.

Tuesday, royaldutchshellplc.com site, hosted by former employees against the group management oil, had argued on the basis of internal sources as the new boss of Shell would cut one-third of senior management positions.

"Inevitably, there will be fewer jobs, but Shell did not set a goal in the subject, assured of its later a spokesman for the group to AFP, called the assertions of royaldutchshellplc.com "pure speculation".

Tuesday, royaldutchshellplc.com site, hosted by former employees against the direction of the oil company, had argued on the basis of internal sources as the new boss of Shell had decided to remove a third of senior management positions.

LONDON, May 30 (Reuters) - Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDSa.L) plans to cut 350-450 senior management roles as it restructures to cut costs and improve operational performance, according to a website to which Shell employees post internal information.

The cuts represent almost 30 percent of Shell's "Senior Executive Group" layer of management, John Donovan, the operator of the Royaldutchshellplc.com website said. Earlier this week Shell announced a major restructuring but gave no targets for job or cost cuts. [ID:nLR946279]

The Royaldutchshellplc.com website was the first to reveal news of the planned restructuring.

LONDON (Dow Jones)--An internal e-mail from Royal Dutch Shell PLC (RDSB.LN) leaked to a blog critical of the company has revealed the appointments of 62 senior executives to new roles within the restructured company.

The e-mail dated June 16, sent by incoming Chief Executive Peter Voser, was published Saturday on the blog royaldutchshellplc.com. A Shell spokesman said the company does not comment on purported leaks.

Effective July 1, Ceri Powell, former Executive Vice President, or EVP, for Strategy becomes EVP for Exploration for the company's international operations, the e-mail said. Dave Lawrence, former EVP for global exploration moves to head up exploration in the new Shell Americas division.

Ian Craig, the former head of the Sakhalin-2 liquefied natural gas project in Russia becomes EVP for Sub-Saharan Africa and will oversee the company's troubled Nigerian operations, the e-mail said. Former Africa chief, Ann Pickard, becomes EVP Australia.

Charles Watson, former EVP of Shell Energy Europe, will head the company's Russian and Caspian upstream operations.

All the above executives will report to the global head of Exploration and Production, Malcolm Brinded.

LONDON (Dow Jones)--A Royal Dutch Shell PLC (RDSB.LN) list of over 300 vice presidents, some of whom have been recently appointed, available on a critic's blog shows that the restructuring started by new Chief Executive Peter Voser is deepening.

The list, obtained by Website Royaldutchshellplc.com, was drawn after Voser launched a top management shake-up in the Anglo-Dutch oil major as it tries to adapt to the new reality of lower oil prices. The company, when contacted by Dow Jones Newswires, said it doesn't comment on internal documents.

The restructuring has already been seen as a factor behind the high profile departure of head of gas and power Linda Cook. But the list shows the changes are now moving from top executives to lower levels of management.

As an example, African gas manager De la Rey Venter is now listed as VP for Shell's critical global liquefied-natural-gas new business.

Bart van de Leemput is adding the management of Shell's Dutch onshore joint-venture Nederlandse Aardolie Maatschappij to his responsibility as vice-president for non-operated European upstream ventures.

Many managers, however, remain at their current position. That's the case for Mutiu Sunmonu, VP production for Africa which embattled business has recently made headway with some output resumption.

Pdf of article publish in newspaper (contains a subtitle below the graphics/photo display: "They just go on digging: the Donovans' campaign has caused Shell expense and embarrassment at its operations in Russia, which include the Sakhalin gas project and drilling in the Sea of Okhotsk")

Shell has taken some big knocks in the attack by a father and son in Essex

Danny Fortson

By his own admission, John Donovan is “truly obsessed”. Standing in his kitchen, the 62-year-old proudly opens the cabinets to reveal shelves stacked not with food but piles of papers and ring binders.

“We don’t cook much,” he said with a chuckle. “Every cupboard in this house has papers in it. It’s the same in my bedroom; the garage is full as well. I have built up so much information so when we put something into print, we can back it up.”

A man obsessed indeed. His modest three-bedroom house in Colchester, Essex, is home to what is probably the world’s largest dossier on Royal Dutch Shell. It also serves as the headquarters for royaldutchshellplc.com, the website where Donovan and his father Alfred – frail but lucid at 92 – pursue a surprisingly effective crusade against the world’s biggest oil company.

So called “gripe sites” are common, especially for companies in highly-emotive areas such as oil, tobacco and banking. Last week Goldman Sachs decided to settle a suit filed against the man who runs a site called goldmansachs666.com after the case garnered celebrity and boosted traffic to the site. The Donovans, though, are more adept than most at inflicting damage on their target.

Their site has become a major thorn in the side of Shell, publishing a relentless stream of insider leaks and negative commentary. It is a remarkable study in the power the internet can have when it is coupled with a couple of industrious individuals with a vendetta.

John estimates that he has published more than 24,000 articles about Shell in the decade and a half since he and his father took their cause online. The website regularly publishes stories, fed to it by a handful of disgruntled executives, which are then picked up by the main-stream press. It has become a hub of activity for antiShell former employees and environmental activists. Last month it had 1.7m hits.

A few weeks ago, for example, it published a plan by new chief executive Peter Voser to slash thousands of jobs before the company was ready to make an announcement.In 2005, when the Kremlin was building a case against Shell over the Sakhalin gas project, the Donovans provided confidential documents regarding alleged environmental infractions directly to Oleg Mitvol, the minister who led the case.

Shell was ultimately forced to sell a stake to the Russians, leading to billions in lost revenue. Mitvol publicly acknowledged the help provided by the Donovans in building his case.

If only Shell knew 20 years ago what it knows now. Back in the 1980s the Donovans had a good relationship with the oil giant. They ran a marketing company that created petrol station promotions for Shell and both sides did well out of the partnership. When a new executive took over marketing, he used several of their schemes but refused to pay for them. So in 1992 they sued. After three legal actions, a fourth ended up in the High Court. In the meantime, Alfred paid people to leaflet Shell’s headquarters on the Thames in central London and they started a pair of antiShell websites.

With legal bills mounting they agreed a “peace treaty under duress” in 1999. It was not the end of the story. Sitting in the cramped study that is the operations centre for the website, John pulls a framed, A4-size oil painting from the wall. It is of Alfred’s former country home that he had to sell in 2000 to pay legal bills. “We had a good life and we had to give our mortgage to our barristers,” he said.

“Perhaps it was a mistake to pursue a case against a big corporation. Maybe it’s my Irish blood but I couldn’t accept it. It changed our lives.” Shell has been paying for it ever since.

In 2007, after the Donovans began airing concerns about safety in the North Sea, internal Shell e-mails admitted that the company was “on the back foot” and needed to “develop a strategy (or options) that puts us in a more positive and secure position” in dealing with the Donovans.

Neither man appears particularly embittered. If anything, they seem quite tickled to be able to give Shell a good kicking. Alfred, a second world war veteran who fought the Japanese in Burma, said: “It’s a laugh.”

Yet what they choose to print doesn’t always fit with their affable demeanour. Last year they published comments by one of their regular contributors who compared a Shell executive to Joseph Fritzl, the Austrian convicted of imprisoning and raping his daughter in a dungeon for nearly two decades. Shell is thought to have considered legal action but decided that publicity would only inflame the situation.

A Shell spokesman said: “The site has a well-known and long-standing agenda. Healthy debate is welcome and encouraged but we choose not to take part if it sinks to the level of personal attacks and innuendo.”

Despite their shoestring budget and minimalist operation, the Donovans are canny operators. When they started up royaldutchshellplc. com in 2005, they incorporated it as a nonprofit site in America, where domain name law is strong. This move served them well. Shell tried to strip them of the site soon after it was opened, labelling them “cyber-squatters”, but the World Intellectual Property Organisation ruled in their favour. The Donovans have since rebooted their two predecessor websites so that the public can access all the information housed there as well.

It is an awkward position for Shell, which was this month crowned by Fortune magazine as the world’s largest company. Trying to shut the website down would draw even more attention to it but letting it continue subjects the company to a constant barrage of negative news, allegations and insults, some of which is picked up by the mainstream media.

In view of Alfred’s advanced age, John does most of the donkey work. He has the time. Unmarried and with no children, the only thing that occupies his time other than the website is his yellow labrador, which he takes for an hour’s walk every morning. He spends six hours a day, seven days a week on the site, fielding e-mails, publishing articles and corresponding with contributors. “It keeps my mind active and I get a kick out of it because we are able to help people,” he said. A nephew helps with the technical aspects of the site. They do not make any money from it and pay just $125 (£77) a month to maintain it.

John doubts that he will ever shut up shop. “There is no ultimate goal,” he said. “We started something and it has grown way beyond what we thought it would. It’s something where people can get revenge on the company or point out things that are wrong. If we can prove it, that’s a real problem for a company like Shell.” In a parting shot he said: “I will continue as long as my health holds up. Since my dad is 92, things don’t look good for Shell.”

(Dow Jones)--A Royal Dutch Shell PLC (RDSB.LN) list of over 300 vice presidents, some of whom have been recently appointed, available on a critic's blog shows that the restructuring started by new Chief Executive Peter Voser is deepening.

The list, obtained by Website Royaldutchshellplc.com, was drawn after Voser launched a top management shake-up in the Anglo-Dutch oil major as it tries to adapt to the new reality of lower oil prices. The company, when contacted by Dow Jones Newswires, said it doesn't comment on internal documents.

The restructuring has already been seen as a factor behind the high profile departure of head of gas and power Linda Cook. But the list shows the changes are now moving from top executives to lower levels of management.

As an example, African gas manager De la Rey Venter is now listed as VP for Shell's critical global liquefied-natural-gas new business.

Bart van de Leemput is adding the management of Shell's Dutch onshore joint-venture Nederlandse Aardolie Maatschappij to his responsibility as vice-president for non-operated European upstream ventures.

Many managers, however, remain at their current position. That's the case for Mutiu Sunmonu, VP production for Africa which embattled business has recently made headway with some output resumption.

LONDON -(Dow Jones)- Royal Dutch Shell PLC (RDSB.LN) has told staff to brace for an acceleration of its restructuring plans, which will result in substantial job cuts, a person familiar with the matter said Friday.

The cuts point to a broadening of the cost cutting program introduced in May by new Chief Executive Peter Voser, designed to help the Anglo-Dutch oil giant adapt to the new reality of lower oil prices. The cuts have already affected top managers, and will now widen to include lower ranks, the source said.

In an internal e-mail sent to mid-managers in its upstream business this week, the company said "the coming days will bring more information about Shell's reorganization,... subject to consultations," according to the person. Shell's upstream business comprises its exploration and production activities as well as oil sands, gas and power.

In a separate statement posted on the company's intranet, Voser said "ongoing changes will result in significant staff reductions," the person added. Shell declined to comment on the internal communications.

John Donovan, the blogger managing Royaldutchshellplc.com, a Web site critical of the company, said he was told by his sources that staff numbers in the exploration and production division will be cut by 15%.

Dow Jones couldn't independently verify the information, while Shell declined to comment. The company said in July it had already cut 20% of its top management positions from 750 to 600.

Shell has previously said the reorganization will affect about 24,000 employees out of its total of 102,000 staff. Though it's unclear if the number covers job losses, the recent internal announcements show a significant proportion will disappear. They don't say, however, if that will include involuntary redundancies.

The person said Shell's upcoming proposal will involve mid-managers and will first be submitted to its works council. The council is a consultative body where employees and managers meet to discuss company policy.

Staff could then be asked to reapply for their current position or another one, the person said.

The shakeup, announced by Voser even before he took the helm on July 1, involves the merger of the three upstream units into two new geographically-focused divisions, Upstream International and Upstream Americas. Staff in both divisions have received e- mails on the pending restructuring, the person said.

Shell's downstream division, which primarily refines and markets oil products, is being expanded to include trading, biofuels and solar.

A new division, called projects and technology, is managing the design of all major projects upstream and downstream.

Like most majors, Shell is facing a steep drop in profits after oil prices fell from a peak of $147 a barrel in July 2008 to about $70 a barrel today. For the second quarter of this year, net profit fell 66.9% to $3.82 billion, from the same period a year ago. The restructuring is aimed at cutting the layers of management, emulating a similar effort launched at BP PLC (BP) two years ago, as well as Exxon Mobil Corp's (XOM) centralized model.

Simplifying the structure could speed up decision-making and ensure projects come on- stream faster with improved execution. That's a key objective for a company that has been heavily criticized for delays and cost overruns at some of its most high-profile oil-and-gas ventures.

Royaldutchshellplc.com, an independent website used by present and former Shell staff, said: “Although precise figures have not been supplied to us, our estimate based on an analysis of
the leaked information received, is that on average, staff numbers [in exploration and
production] will be cut by 15 per cent.” It said some experienced staff expected to have to re-apply for their jobs.

Meanwhile, Royal Dutch Shell PLC could be planning job cuts of around 15 per cent in its core exploration and production unit which includes Shell Canada, Reuters reported on Friday, citing sources inside the oil major.

An announcement on a restructuring of the unit, which generates most of the company's profit, is due on Monday, Shell protest website Royaldutchshellplc.com said. Shell declined to comment.

In May, Europe's largest oil company by market value said it planned to restructure its exploration division and divide it into two units, one focused on the Americas and another focused on the rest of the world.

LONDON — Royal Dutch Shell would today announce its plans to cut about 15% of the jobs in its core exploration and production unit, a Shell protest website reported on Friday.

An announcement on restructuring the unit, which generates most of Shell’s profit, was due today, website Royaldutchshellplc.com said, citing sources inside the oil major.

Shell declined to comment.

In May, Europe’s largest oil company by market value said it planned to restructure its exploration division and divide it into two units, one focused on the Americas and another focused on the rest of the world.

Since then, new CE Peter Voser has announced hundreds of job cuts across the company as it struggles with plunging revenue after oil price futures collapsed from a record above 147 a barrel in July last year.

On Thursday, Standard and Poor’s lowered its long-term rating on Shell to “AA” from “AA+”, citing concerns about its cash flows.

Royal Dutch Shell managers are beginning the grim task of telling staff where
job cuts will fall as new chief executive Peter Voser wields the axe.

A report on company protest site royaldutchshellplc.com said about 15% of
jobs in the exploration and production unit will be lost and employees will be
told early this week.

However, there is doubt over that figure as reductions have not been finalised
yet. Shell declined to comment.

Voser has said thousands of positions will go as he slims down the oil leviathan
in a plan called Transition 2009.

In an email to staff last month he said: 'We continue to operate in a challenging
environment. That reinforces the urgency for us to step up our cost reduction
efforts.'

The 'A' shares rose 18p to 1,703p yesterday.

In July, Voser struck a grim tone as he unveiled a 70% crash in second-quarter
profits to £1.4bn. He also announced plans to hack capital spending by 10%
and push through 'substantial' cuts to the firm's 102,000-strong workforce.

It follows a 17,000 reduction in headcount between 2003 and 2008 and a cull of
a fifth of the firm's top managers already this year.

'We simply don't know when the global economy will recover, and we have to
plan on the basis that this downturn could last quite some time,' said Voser at
the time.

World oil demand will fall by over 2m barrels-a-day this year, the sharpest fall
since 1980, according to Shell.

This time last year, firms were riding high on the back of oil prices that peaked
at $147 a barrel. But the global recession pushed prices almost down to $30 a
barrel early in 2009.

An announcement on a restructuring of the unit, which generates most of Shell's profit, is due on Monday, website Royaldutchshellplc.com said. Shell declined comment.

In May, Europe's largest oil company by market value said it planned to restructure its exploration division and divide it into two units, one focused on the Americas and another focused on the rest of the world.

Since, then new Chief Executive Peter Voser has announced hundreds of job cuts across the company as it struggles with plunging revenues after oil prices collapsed from a record above $147/barrel in July 2008.

On Thursday, ratings agency Standard and Poors lowered its long-term rating on Shell to "AA" from "AA+", citing concerns about its cash flows.

The website did not say how many jobs would likely be affected by the plan. (Editing by David Cowell)

At 92 years old, Alfred Donovan is an unlikely online campaigner. But he and his son John, 62, have been a painful thorn in the side of Royal Dutch Shell for more than a decade. The pair run one of the oldest and most effective "gripe sites", and the oil giant's army of well-paid lawyers do not know how to neutralise them.

The number of so-called "gripe sites", which exist to criticise, mock, and generally annoy companies, people, and institutions, has exploded in recent years, and the trend is set to continue.

Take this month's campaign against the super-injunction obtained by the lawyers Carter Ruck on behalf of Trafigura. Thousands of Twitter users, empowered and astonished at the campaign's success, are expected to look afresh at how the internet can be used to fight against big business.

"The anti-Trafigura campaign really brought home – even to someone like me – the power of the internet and new media," says John Donovan, a former marketing entrepreneur. "Once, you could never hope to take on companies that had loads of money and lawyers. Now there is an alternative to legal action. You can make a big impact with very little cost."

Last week the Donovans were leafleting outside Shell's London HQ to advertise their website, www.royaldutchshellplc.com. But they hardly need the publicity – the site had more than 2m hits last month – and leafleting was just another way of goading a company they have been at war with since the early 1990s.

The site is so successful that Kremlin officials and US investigators have used it. Journalists, knowing that the site regularly receives juicy leaks from Shell employees, search it for stories. Since setting up his first anti-Shell site in 1995, Donovan estimates he has published about 24,000 articles about the company.

One early and successful gripe site was www.mcspotlight.org, founded after the celebrated McLibel trial involving McDonalds in 1997. Another site, www.ihatedell.net, carved a niche as a forum for critics of the Dell computer company. Dell's answer was to engage with its critics rather than use legal muscle to close them down. In contrast the investment bank Goldman Sachs failed in a legal bid against www.goldmansachs666.com.

Katy Howell, the director of Immediate Future, which specialises in social media, believes Dell made a textbook response to its gripe site. "Dell spoke to its critics and responded to their concerns. They turned a negative into a positive," she says.

The Donovans' campaign was prompted by a grievance over claims that Shell stole intellectual property from their marketing company. The legal bills from four court cases in the 1990s almost crippled the two men. Shell fully investigated the Donovans' claims, and in 1999 agreed a "peace deal" under which the pair got an undisclosed sum. However, the payment was far less than the £1m they wanted. The Donovans claim Shell then breached the agreement by talking publicly about the case. Shell denies breaching any part of the agreement with the Donovans.

Since then, Shell is thought to have contacted the Donovans at least once, using a middle man, to resolve the dispute. John Donovan will not comment on this but shows no sign of agreeing to mediation.

Four years ago Shell was embroiled in a bitter dispute with Russia's environmental regulator over drilling for gas at Sakhalin Island. It was eventually forced to relinquish its majority stake in the project, costing Shell billions in lost revenue. Later, the regulator, Oleg Mitvol, publicly acknowledged the Donovans' help in getting information about alleged claims of environmental abuses by Shell. The company has denied breaking any environmental regulations.

Earlier this year the site disclosed plans for thousands of Shell job losses. And now, Donovan says, he is helping US investigators looking into the award of oilfield drilling licenses, providing them with information leaked to his website.

The site has broadened its coverage to include other stories about the oil and gas industry. "I knew when I started the site that if it was static – just with the same story – people would visit us once and never again," says Donovan. "So I brought in a news element, mixing negative but also positive stories about Shell."

But "kicking" Shell is still the site's raison d'etre, and Donovan has no intention of easing up. "My father is 92. So if I live that long there's still plenty of years to pursue my little hobby."

Shell says of the Donovans: "We disagree fundamentally with much of the information and basis on which they make their allegations."

The Donovans live in Essex but the website is hosted in Dallas, Texas, and is incorporated in America as a non-profit operation. US laws offer better protection against closure attempts. Shell tried to regain the website name, calling the Donovans cybersquatters, but in 2005 the World Intellectual Property Organisation dismissed the application.

Would Donovan stop if Shell waved a large cheque? "It's gone beyond money," he says, but he has no doubt that Shell's lawyers are watching closely, waiting for a slip-up that would give the company a chance to go on the attack.

Shell is usually pretty pro-active in its approach to shaping its public image. It is eager to host and participate public discussions on climate change and CCS, and the company’s climate change scientist David Hone writes what is, for a corporate-sponsored effort, not a bad blog.

But those efforts tend to be focused on oil and gas production, or big-picture stuff such as the future of fossil fuels. They seem to be falling down a little, at least by comparison, when it comes to the somewhat more mundane downstream efforts.

First, the poppy scandal. In the UK, Shell retailers are not allowing charities, including the Royal British Legion’s ubiquitous poppy appeal, to put their fundraising boxes on its service station counters. It’s easy to guess how that turned out: threats of boycotts from ex-servicemen and general accusations of heartlessness.

And in the US, Shell on Friday agreed to pay $19.5m for “numerous violations” discovered in an investigation into 1,000 gasoline stations around California. “Many dealt with failure to properly monitor underground storage tanks and spill alarm systems,” the AP reported. (Incidentally, the rather eye-catching gas station pictured above is in neither California nor the UK.)

Update: Shell has changed its mind about the poppies and published a rather abject apology about the whole affair. Royaldutchshellplc.com - probably company’s most eagle-eyed watchers - have published the whole thing and even gave them a pat on the back for it.

LONDON (Reuters) - A prominent Internet critic of Royal Dutch Shell says the oil major has asked an anti-cyber fraud agency to target his site, which Shell admits provides better information on the group than its own internal communications.

John Donovan, who runs the Royaldutchshell.plc website, where disaffected Shell employees post company news and gossip, said the move suggests Shell has adopted more aggressive tactics in its long battle to shut him down.

"They are very worried about the leaks," Donovan told Reuters in a telephone interview.

"They are trying to track down the people who are leaking information to us," he added.

The allegations are based on emails Donovan said Shell released to him following a request under data protection law rights. Donovan shared these, and a letter on Shell headed paper responding to Donovan's request, with Reuters.

Shell did not comment on the veracity of the communication or any of Donovan's allegations, despite several emails and phone calls requesting it.

However, Gavin White, from Shell's legal department, whose name appeared on the cover letter to Donovan, confirmed that Donovan made a request for information.

"The request is not a matter for public discussion or comment," White said.

One email between Shell employees dated June 2009, said an individual whose name is blanked out but apparently also a Shell employee, met with "NCFTA" to discuss the website.

The email adds that resources had been assigned to NCFTA "that are RDS (presumably Royal Dutch Shell) focused" and that "There will be no attempt to do anything visible to Donovan."

Donovan believes NCFTA refers to the National Cyber Forensics and Training Alliance, a Pittsburgh-based organization, whose website says it is supported by Fortune 500 companies and that its purpose is to help tackle cyber fraud.

A Google search for NCFTA yields the Pittsburgh organization as the top result. National Cyber Forensics and Training Alliance did not respond to emails or telephone calls.

Another email, dated March 2007 said Shell was monitoring emails from Shell servers globally to Donovan and internal traffic to their website. The email noted this information was "not for publication."

LONG-RUNNING BATTLE

Donovan, 62, and his father, Alfred, 92, have been vocal Internet critics of Europe's largest oil company by market value since the 1990s after a business dispute with Shell, which was a client of their sales promotion business.

That case, and two libel actions against Shell, were settled out of court a decade ago but the internet battle has continued.

Shell insiders use the Donovans' site to leak company secrets including, in the past 12 months alone, a planned restructuring of the group under new Chief Executive Peter Voser and a big hole in Shell's pension fund.

The website, which Donovan said receives 2 million hits a month, has also featured attacks on Shell's safety and environmental record.

Most of the vast reams of information and news reports on the site is unflattering about Shell, whose market capitalization tops $182 billion.

Another email seen by Reuters, apparently from a Shell communications representative to U.S. news network Fox News said: "royaldutchshell plc.com is an excellent source of group news and comment and I recommend it far above what our own group internal comms puts out."

After failing to have the Donovans' ownership of the royaldutchshellplc.com domain name removed in a legal challenge in 2005, Shell appeared to have taken the approach of ignoring the site for fear of raising its profile any higher.

However, Donovan fears the company had simply adopted different tactics.

In March 2008, the website faced a cyber "assault." "Someone was sending so many requests it kept on crashing it," Donovan said.

Donovan said he complained to Shell about the problem and that the same day, the problem stopped.

Shell declined to comment about this incident but in a letter from Shell to Donovan, posted on his site, Shell denied any responsibility.

In recent years, heavy-handed corporate attempts to stem leaks have caused public and political outrage.

Personal computer maker Hewlett-Packard became the target of lawsuits, a U.S. Congressional inquiry and police investigation due to its efforts to stem leaks in 2005 and 2006.

The Times December 3, 2009 Martin Waller: City Diary Websites and blogs devoted to attacking specific companies have been around for some time — remember NTHell? — but now, it seems, the targets are fighting back. John Donovan, who runs a critical website of a well-known oil company, says the site is being targeted by an anti-cyber fraud agency. He claims the aim is to try to uncover who has leaking to his site. The feud dates back to the 1990s, when Shell was a client of Mr Donovan’s sale promotion business.

LONDON (Dow Jones)–Royal Dutch Shell PLC (RDSB.LN) data containing the contact details of tens of thousands of employees, which the company said could compromise their personal safety, has been leaked to a blogger critical of the company, according to emails seen by Dow Jones Newswires.

The data, which includes mobile numbers and home postcodes of workers in dangerous locations like Port Harcourt, Nigeria, was leaked by a number of Shell staff to John Donovan, a blogger who is critical of the company and is a frequent recipient of leaks from within Shell.

Shell’s Niger Delta operations have been troubled by violence for several years. Attacks or sabotage on oil infrastructure in the region regularly disrupt production and employees are sometimes targeted.

Four expatriates working for a Shell Petroleum Development Co. contractor in Port Harcourt were kidnapped last month and later released unharmed. Two Nigerians were killed during the kidnapping.

“Some of the information is sensitive from the security point of view and in some cases personal safety could be compromised by its publication,” Shell’s Chief Ethics and Compliance Officer Richard Wiseman wrote in an email to Donovan. Wiseman asked Donovan not to publish the information on his Web site.

Donovan told Dow Jones Newswires he hasn’t yet decided whether to publish the data in full, but said he takes Wiseman’s warnings about safety of Shell employees seriously.

According to another email seen by Dow Jones Newswires, the data was leaked by a group of Shell employees in the U.K., the U.S. and the Netherlands who believe the company is abusing the environment and human rights in Nigeria.

Shell wasn’t immediately able to comment.

Shell has recently finished a major restructuring program during which many employees had to re-apply for their own jobs and 5,000 people were made redundant. Shell Chief Executive Peter Voser said there will be another 1,000 job cuts this year aimed at cutting costs by $1 billion and improving profitability.

(Dow Jones)--A database containing contact details of tens of thousands of employees of Royal Dutch Shell PLC (RDSB) was passed to non-governmental organizations critical of the company and environmental groups that have targeted it in past protests, people familiar with the matter said Tuesday.

The database contains contact details, including mobile phone numbers and home postcodes, for every Shell employee, workers at the company's joint ventures and some contractors. It isn't clear if the groups will take any action with the data they received, the people told Dow Jones Newswires.

Shell wasn't immediately able to comment.

"We are investigating and are raising this theft of information with the relevant data protection authorities...if you receive any nuisance telephone calls or emails then please contact your line manager, HR or security," wrote Shell's Chief Ethics and Compliance Officer Richard Wiseman, in an internal Shell memorandum posted on the Web site of John Donovan, a blogger critical of the company.

According to emails seen by Dow Jones, the leaked data could also compromise the personal safety of Shell workers. It includes the details of employees in dangerous locations like Port Harcourt, Nigeria, where Shell workers have been kidnapped.

"Some of the information is sensitive from the security point of view and in some cases personal safety could be compromised by its publication," Wiseman wrote in an email to Donovan, whose blog www.royaldutchshellplc.com also received a copy of the data, but has decided not to publish it.

According to another email seen by Dow Jones Newswires, the data was leaked by a group of Shell employees in the U.K., the U.S. and the Netherlands who believe the company is abusing the environment and human rights in Nigeria.

Shell has recently finished a major restructuring program during which many employees had to re-apply for their own jobs and 5,000 people were made redundant. Shell Chief Executive Peter Voser said there will be another 1,000 job cuts this year aimed at cutting costs by $1 billion and improving profitability.

The e-mail was sent to a handful of campaign groups, including Greenpeace, and to www.royaldutchshellplc.com, a website used to air grievances about Shell.

Times Online: Confidential Shell database published on web: 12 February 2010

News of the breach first emerged last week on a website, royaldutchshellplc.com, which has become a focus for repeated criticism of Shell in recent years. Last night, a note on the website from one of its creators, John Donovan, claimed royaldutchshellplc.com had deleted its copy of the database on a voluntary basis because it belonged to Shell. However, Mr Donovan also acknowledged that the potential security risk to Shell personnel from the open circulation of the database remained. He blamed Shell for the security breach for what he said was a failure to safeguard information entrusted to the company. Royaldutchshellplc.com also published e-mails allegedly written by Richard Wiseman, Shell’s chief ethics and compliance officer, insisting that the website delete the database and warning that publication of any of the contents could amount to a criminal offence under the UK data protection act.

John Donovan, a corporate activist who runs a "name and shame" website about Shell, received the original message. The message, which contained the names and contact details of more than 170,000 Shell staff and contractors, was signed by 116 people who claimed to be Shell employees.

Corporate activist John Donovan, who received a copy of the contact list, said he destroyed it because the details could have threatened the safety of some individuals. In correspondence published on Donovan's website, he said Shell's actions confirmed his view that the leaked data put the personal safety of some employees at risk. He said he had confirmed the list was up-to-date by test-mailing a sample of the names on the list. None was returned as "undeliverable", he said.

Among those to be sent the details were British blogger John Donovan who said the personal details could be used to dupe staff and put workers in dangerous situation. He said he “knew for certain” the data had been passed to a Nigerian activist organisation and six other groups. And he accused the oil company of “covering-up” the full extent of risk to staff. E-mails from Shell’s chief ethics and compliance officer Richard Wiseman said employee and contractor security could be compromised by the leaked data. Mr Donovan said: “I voluntarily agreed not to make the database accessible online because bosses stressed the potential risk to the personal safety of some Shell employees.

Meanwhile John Donovan at royaldutchshellplc.com is irked, because he says Shell asked him not to make the directory public for security and personal reasons (he agreed); but the company subsequently told the press, including the FT, that the database leak was not a security risk. We don’t necessarily agree with Donovan’s accusation that the Shell staff in question were deliberately misleading anyone. Indeed the directory doesn’t contain personal home contact details, so opinions probably varied. But to say there are no security implications from such a leak isn’t quite correct.

Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.AS) is facing an angry reaction from staff, after the names, telephone numbers and contact details of 170,000 employees and contractors were made public on the websites of seven environmental groups and an anti-Shell website, Royaldutchshellplc.com.

A small number of personal addresses were included in the list, which was leaked to the NGOs and to an anti-Shell website, Royaldutchshellplc.com, in an apparent attempt to highlight Shell’s activities in Nigeria and to changes to company policy in the country.

John Donovan, one of the creators of the Royaldutchshellplc website, which has become a focus for attacks on the Anglo-Dutch oil company for several years, said that he had threatened to publish the database on his website. He said that he had chosen not to after an exchange of e-mails, during which Shell advised him that to do so would be a criminal offence.

Royal Dutch Shell <RDSa.AS> is facing an angry reaction from staff, after the names, telephone numbers and contact details of 170,000 employees and contractors were made public on the websites of seven environmental groups and an anti-Shell website, Royaldutchshellplc.com.

Another thing Shell should definitely be concerned over is, if the attacker managed to get access to this data what else did he manage to get his hands on? How will this affect its workforce? Will the resulting harassment lead to people leaving the company? Will the breach mean that some possible future employees will think twice before the joining the company fearing for their privacy? What about lost business? It is definitely to be expected that some companies will worry about their contractual and financial details being safe with the company! This can lead to lost deals and revenue.

What is definite is that such a breach causes one huge PR nightmare that will not go away by downplaying the breach; downplaying, if anything, will make the situation worst.

A six-month-old database containing full contact details for every Royal Dutch Shell employee, including home phone numbers for work-from-home employees was sent to organisations such as Greenpeace and www.royaldutchshell.com a well-known anti-Shell grievance site.

One recipient of the files, John Donovan, a campaigner at anti-Shell website www.royaldutchshellplc.com, told IT PRO that the disillusioned employees may have been planted there by activists solely to extract information such as the database. Donovan predicted that more data breaches would be forthcoming at the oil giant.

CrainsManchester: Indian group bidding for Cheshire refinery plans London listing:10 March 2010

EXTRACTS

Royaldutchshellplc.com, a website which campaigns against the oil giant, has posted on the internet a confidential analysts' briefing produced by Essar Oil Ltd last November which, it claims, indicates that Stanlow will be run down to a tank farm.

On a page headed "International Distribution Strategy", Stanlow is marked as a terminal and Royaldutchshellplc.com says that this indicates that refining activity will cease.

In a separate development, the Corrib gas partners, including Shell EP Ireland, have said responsibility for the Corrib gas field wells “has been clarified”.

It was commenting on e-mails leaked to the royaldutchshellplc.com website run by father and son Alfred and John Donovan, which indicate Shell staff concerns about there being “no clear ownership” of the Corrib wells.